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Piquet Sports not for sale

Piquet Sports lead driver Nelson Piquet Jr and team principal Felipe Vargas have both rubbished rumours that the team were about to be sold to former Jordan sporting director Trevor Carlin, stating that the team is not for sale to anyone

Recent reports have linked Carlin with a buyout of Piquet Sports after failing in his own bid to become the thirteenth team in GP2 when Trident Racing were handed the spot, but the Brazilians were adamant that their team have a long-term future.

When asked whether any negotiations had taken place with Carlin, Piquet told autosport.com: "No, no - I don't know if Trevor has said anything in the press, but we never got a phone call, and we never wanted to do that.

"We haven't spoken to him since Formula Three, so I don't know where this came from."

Vargas expanded on his driver's comments, noting: "There has been nothing, no negotiations, and I don't know where these rumours came from. We are concentrating fully on doing a strong championship next year, and not thinking about stopping - we have a long term commitment."

Asked for his thought on the origins of the rumour, Vargas was baffled: "I don't know! I was very surprised, and I have no idea where it has come from. I can understand rumours of Nelson going to ART, but not that we are selling the team.

"But we are putting a lot of effort in to improve next year - we are trying to concentrate on learning as much as we can over the winter tests, and we are also trying to get more staff to work with us.

"We will focus on the areas where we were weaker last year, and we'll probably work with more mechanics and engineers than last year."

Piquet has been racing with the Brazilian A1 GP team in the off season, and the team are run by ART's parent company ASM, with whom the driver has enjoyed a strong relationship.
 
However, the Brazilian feels that this relationship has been misinterpreted by journalists in the A1 paddock: "Of course - it is full of stupid journalists there talking crap all day because they have nothing to do, so that's what they do.
 
"But they have two signed drivers for next year - [Alex] Premat and Lewis [Hamilton] - so there is zero chance of me going there next year. I'm going to work as hard as I can here, and do my best to win."

With both Piquet and teammate Xandi Negrao re-signing to Piquet Sports, Vargas felt that his team will have a big advantage over the competition, as most of the other teams have a partial or complete driver line-up change.

"I think consistency is really good. A team is a continuous development and learning process for everyone - for the drivers and for the team - and the stronger the relationship between everyone, the better I think. It will definitely be an advantage for us next year."

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